Conventional networks have little interaction between various layers. For example, Layers 0-2 (e.g., optical (DWDM) at Layer 0, Optical Transport Network (OTN) or SONET/SDH at Layer 1, Ethernet at Layer 2) have little interaction with higher layer traffic (e.g., Layers 4-7). In the context of content delivery in conventional networks at Layers 0-2, the present state-of-the art solutions aim at providing a best quality stream based on available bandwidth knowing nothing about the content and having no ability to create a different, higher bandwidth, service to carry the content if it determines the current service to be sub-optimal. Today's mechanisms to accomplish guaranteed bandwidth are subscription-based (with the content providers) and are accomplished with statically provisioned core networks (at Layers 0-1 and possibly 2) that lead to underutilization since these maximum bandwidth scenarios are not in use 100% of the time. Here, Over-The-Top (OTT) content providers maintain their transparency through an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) network using this approach. In a session based approach, a particular session is identified by Layer 4-7 information. In this scenario, an initial session handshake between OTT server and a subscriber device through the portal path is required. This handshake identifies the unique flow identifier (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) source address +IP destination address +Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port number). The shortcoming of this approach is the manual step involvement of the portal. Note, both DWDM and OTN/SONET/SDH (TDM) are Layer 1 physical layer protocols in the OSI stack. However, those of ordinary skill in the art refer to DWDM as a separate Layer, i.e., Layer 0, to distinguish between DWDM and TDM protocols.
Today's mechanism to accomplish the “best” user experience in content viewing is to use adaptive bit rate streaming. This technique is used in streaming multimedia over one or more networks to user devices (e.g., computers, smart phones, tablets, etc.) with the aim at providing the best user experience (i.e., best video resolution for movies, etc.) which is based entirely on the availability of bandwidth and independent of the content. While in the past most video streaming technologies utilized streaming protocols such as Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) with Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), today's adaptive streaming technologies are almost exclusively based on Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and are designed to work efficiently over large distributed HTTP networks such as the Internet.
In the subscriber (identified by destination IP address) based approach, customers who pay the highest monthly fee have their streams carried on pre-established high performance end-to-end tunnels. The shortcoming of this approach is the over-provisioning of the network (e.g., at Layers 0-1 and possibly 2). Furthermore, there is no ability to distinguish multiple streams from different OTT providers for this subscriber. In the session based approach, a particular session is identified by Layer 4-7 information. In this scenario, an initial session handshake between OTT server and subscriber device through the portal path is required. This handshake identifies the unique flow identifier (e.g. IP source address+IP destination address+TCP port number). The shortcoming of this approach is the manual step involvement of the portal. Further, the present state of art solution does not involve a multi-layer network and coordination therebetween. Lastly, another shortcoming is the inability of the network provider (e.g., ISP) to know what content is being passed through their network.